Victorious Hamilton nervous he was going to suffer "another Silverstone"
Victorious Hamilton nervous he was going to suffer "another Silverstone"
Lewis Hamilton admitted he was worried he was going to suffer 'another Silverstone' as he managed his tyres in the closing stages to claim victory at Spa Francorchamps.
In another accomplished performance, world championship leader Hamilton once again led from start to finish and, though he was forced to look after his tyres in the final laps, he was a comfortable winner.
Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen were second and third position and speaking after the race Hamilton explained that he was a little concerned that Silverstone, where a late-race tyre incident allowed Verstappen to claim victory ahead of him, could happen again.
He said: "It wasn't the easiest of races, I had a lock up into turn five which started to give a bit of a vibration. The tyre temperatures were slowly dropping no matter how much you are pushing, as you lose rubber you start to lose temperature in the tyres.
"It was a bit of a struggle. I was a little bit nervous I was going to have another Silverstone with that right front towards the end. It looks like the tyre has plenty of rubber on it, so maybe we were worrying for nothing.
"I know it's not necessarily what everyone wants to see the Mercedes at the front, but no matter how much success we have we just keep our heads down. When I go back into the office now, there's no guys celebrating, we're just wondering how we can win the next race. It's an incredible mentality."
Hamilton added that even as he gets older he feels in a good place physically, a message which could be daunting for his F1 rivals.
He stated: "I'm 35, going towards 36 but I feel better than ever and I think that's a positive. I'm really really grateful to the team, everyone back at the factory for their continued support."
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was second once again and was asked about a team message coming over the radio requesting that he and Hamilton 'not race', something that Bottas responded with surprise.
He said on the podium: "Actually, I had no clue about that, maybe they said it, I don't recall.
"Lewis was faultless today, and yesterday, at least it was a clean weekend for me. We had no big issues, but I want those race wins."
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Nyck De Vries
- Liam Lawson
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2023
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Australia 2023
- Grand Prix of China 2023
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2023
- Miami Grand Prix 2023
- Qatar Airways Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'emilia Romagna 2023
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2023
- AWS Gran Premio de España 2023
- Grand Prix du Canada 2023
- Grand Prix of Austria 2023
- Aramco Grand Prix of Great Britain 2023
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2023
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2023
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Italy 2023
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2023
- Grand Prix of Japan 2023
- Qatar Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of the United States 2023
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2023
- Rolex Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2023
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2023
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